Fast friends, faster cars on driving trek
European trip for buyers covers five countries
All it took was three ill-timed stoplights to lose the entire group of cars we were following, in a strange city in a different country on another continent, and on the first day of a six- day drive. This did not bode well for us on this BMW M European Tour.
But it’s difficult to complain when you’re behind the wheel of the M760Li xDrive, BMW’s l argest and most luxurious car. Oh, this isn’t our car, but six other BMW M cars we’re travelling with are already spoken for, and that’s the point of this 1,100km drive through five European countries.
Buying a new car is already an exciting experience, with the thrill of getting the keys, sitting inside for the first time, sniffing in that new-car smell and realizing that, yes, this baby is yours. But this adventure is for those who decide that taking delivery of their cars in Canada is just a little boring. The company already offers the option of picking up any new BMW at its showcase delivery centre, BMW Welt, in Munich, right across the street from its factory and museum, but this M Tour adds an extra layer of adventure.
This is the fifth annual M European Tour, a driving holiday available only to Canadian M buyers. The tour adds about $ 8,000 for two people on top of the cost of the car, but includes BMW support vehicles, the route, decadent meals in high- end restaurants and some very luxurious hotel stays. The cars get shipped to Canada after the tour is finished.
On this trip, six cars were being delivered to Canadians: five M2s and one M6 Coupe. Here at the Welt, BMW officials spend time with new owners with a presentation on their car, its features and highlights, before walking them down a grand staircase where they see their car for the first time, on display in the huge glass- and- steel showroom. More direction and features, then they get behind the wheel and drive a short loop through the building before getting outside.
Presentations over and a lineup outside for an obligatory photo, you can feel the anticipation among this group of 12; they want to get going. We drive out of the city toward our first destination of Tyrol, Austria, and that’s where we got lost. We hadn’t even hit the autobahn.
No worries. With a destination set in our navigation for the Interalpen-Hotel, we meet up with the group again after a few hours. Once there, parked, unpacked and in the lounge with everyone else, we find the appeal of this trip isn’t just confined to the drive. “At the start of the tour,” says Michael Ferreira, “I told everyone that one of my biggest hopes is not just that they enjoy their cars, but that they’ve made 12 new friends.”
Ferreira is national sales director of BMW Canada and is on this trip to spend some time with these new buyers. He says past tours have been successes from the perspective of both BMW and its travellers. “The only feedback we’ve had is positive. We’ve had return customers, we’ve had people — so they’ve told me — buy cars just to come on this trip.”
The drive continues the next day through the mountains and the exciting Albula Pass. Travel is, let’s say, spirited, considering the high- horsepower performance of these cars and the twisty, switchback roads. The tour is led by Walter Haupt, a BMW engineer who has worked on many M vehicles in the 35 years he’s been with the company. But we aren’t fooled by Haupt’s laid- back, casual demeanour; his quirky and witty humour belies real driving skill, honed as a Nürburgring “taxi” driver and a professional racer for BMW decades ago, and who is now also a BMW driving instructor. Many in the group are determined to stay on the bumper of his X6 M through the mountains, just as much for fun as for the challenge.
We arrive in the small ski tourist town of Andermatt, Switzerland, and the surprise of the modern and opulent Chedi Andermatt hotel. But we’re here for only for one night; each day is a different destination, and the next morning we’re off down the Alps to Italy for the oldschool luxury of the Grand Hotel Des Iles Borromees in Lake Maggiore for a night.
From there, the roads get flatter as we travel toward Santa Margherita and the Grand Hotel Miramare, where the group enjoys a boat ride on the Mediterranean to nearby Portofino, full of towering luxury yachts and smaller power speedboats. Giorgio Armani, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have holiday homes here, not surprising considering the perfectly sheltered seaside setting with both quaint shops and grand hillside stone houses.
Then we’re off on the final leg, and the tight hillside roads lead us again down to the Mediterranean Sea and Monte Carlo and the Fairmont, right at the tip of the hairpin curve famous in the Monaco Grand Prix.
Then the tour is over, save for a jovial celebration dinner that evening with a tonguein-cheek awards show.
Alan Chan, a Vancouverite who works in the software industry, had picked up his new M2. “You get to see a whole bunch of things you would never normally experience,” he says. “Andermatt was amazing, and I never would have thought of that. Lake Maggiore, I never heard of it. I never would have discovered it on my own.”
Wesley Mah, a l awyer based in Calgary, had also picked up his M2 at the Welt. He describes his drive as “supremely awesome, a fantastic experience.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to drive in Europe, to experience the weather, different locales, the food; it’s really an ideal experience,” says Mah. “I’ve seen this trip advertised for a few years, and I’ve always thought ‘ one day.’ And now, it’s in my own car!”